County ADs weighing options in face of EEE outbreak

Thursday

The recent outbreak of the eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) in Michigan hasn't had a dramatic impact on most Hillsdale County high school sporting events just yet.

But that doesn't mean local athletic directors are sleeping on the problem.

The Hillsdale Daily News was in phone contact with five Hillsdale County athletic directors on Thursday as the area grapples with what the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has called the most serious outbreak of EEEV in the state in over a decade.

Cases of the mosquito-transmitted virus have been found in eight counties — Barry, Berrien, Cass, Genesee, Kalamazoo, Lapeer, St. Joseph and Van Buren — in the state of Michigan this summer, leading to three deaths to date.

EEEV is a dangerous infection that incubates in those it affects for four to 10 days, with an abrupt onset of symptoms characterized by chills, fever, headache, irritability, restlessness, drowsiness, vomiting, diarrhea, and seizures, possibly leading to coma, according to the CDC. A portion of the cases have milder symptoms that are not life threatening, but the infection is still dangerous, leading to death in roughly 30 percent of cases and leaving a portion of survivors with minimal to severe brain damage that affects their functioning for the rest of their lives.

In recognition of the seriousness of the threat, the Michigan DHHS has recommended that all outdoor nighttime activities, including sporting events and practices, in counties where EEEV is present, to avoid the highest-activity times of day for mosquitoes.

Hillsdale County has had no cases to date, and none of the county's immediate neighbors have either, but with cases just an hour away in St. Joseph County and on both sides of the state, athletic directors are well aware of the situation.

Already, a few athletic events have been affected. Jonesville has moved a JV football game scheduled for Thursday at Schoolcraft in Kalamazoo County to Jonesville to avoid the risk, while the start time of Camden-Frontier's JV football game at Climax-Scotts in Kalamazoo County has been moved up to 5:15 to avoid playing at night.

The only varsity football game in the county that's been affected so far is Reading's rivalry game at home with Quincy today, Friday, which is now starting at 6 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. to avoid playing at night as much as possible.

Reading is one of the westernmost schools in the county, closest to the outbreak, and opposing Quincy is in Branch County, which neighbors St. Joseph County.

"Both (Quincy's AD and I) had read the warning released by the CDC, and I was in an AD meeting in Kalamazoo yesterday where it was a topic that was brought up," Reading AD Mitch Hubbard said. "We originally moved the JV game in Quincy up, and then we decided to move both games up just to be safe."

Hubbard said he wants to encourage people to take precautions, but not to start a panic, with only seven cases in southwest Michigan and none in Branch or Hillsdale County yet.

"If you look at the numbers so far, the odds of (contracting EEEV) look a lot like the odds of getting struck by lightning, but we take precautions against lightning at sporting events, too," Hubbard said. "When you've got something that can do this much damage, you want to do everything you can to protect yourself, even if the chances of it happening aren't that high."

To that end, Hubbard is asking fans to use bug spray and come to today's game with long pants and long-sleeve shirts to limit the amount of visible skin available for mosquitoes.

Other schools in the county further east of Reading are sticking to a 7 p.m. start time so far for Friday night, but they're also planning to change that if necessary.

Every AD the Daily News talked to on Thursday said they either had been or were attempting to get in contact with the local branch of the Michigan DHHS to get their recommendations on how to keep athletes safe, and all were working on contingency plans to move games up or to a different day if EEEV continues to spread.

A recurring problem from last year, a statewide referee shortage, is complicating those plans and making it hard to move games around.

Reading originally wanted to push the start time for the Quincy game up even further, but couldn't secure enough refs to start the game before 6 p.m.

"It's tough sometimes to find referees for a game that's scheduled at a normal time, let alone if you start pushing it earlier when people might still be working," Hubbard said. "You could see teams running into a situation where they want to change their game time, and the resources aren't there to make it happen.

"But if it comes down to it, we'll get creative and find a way to make it work for the safety of the kids and our fans."

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